HFHI Global Village, Amarante, Portugal – Work Day 5

Having spent the day yesterday in Regua, our batteries were fully charged for a full work day working on Celeste’s house. We awoke to rain and heavy cloud cover; it was cool and perfect build weather since the precipitation quit as we were arriving on site. It’s been heartwarming to see Celeste and her daughters become more accustomed to having us around, offering to help more and more every day.

Walls, walls, walls was the theme today. The walls on the inside and outside of the septic tanks were skim coated in mortar. The exterior wall of the house, freshly insulted, was skimmed in another coat of plaster to prepare for the eventual painting. And, new today, tile went up on the walls in the kitchen. There was plenty to keep us busy, even if we had to rotate to keep our muscles from becoming too fatigued.

We have grown especially fond of our construction supervisors, Rugerio and Francisco. Everything we know about building this house we learned from them. Their smiles are electric. Their patience enduring. And their ability to understand us – and us them – has become a finely tuned art. We will miss them dearly.